Canadian Anglicans sit on fence over gay marriages

Fri 31 Oct 2008
By Randall Palmer

OTTAWA, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Canada's Anglican bishops sidestepped a request from the worldwide Anglican Communion to stop blessing gay marriages for now, despite warnings that failure to do so would imperil Anglican unity.

The bishops issued a statement on Friday saying "a large majority" of them could affirm "a continued commitment to the greatest extent possible" to a moratorium on the blessing of same-sex unions until the Canadian church's general synod in 2010.

But the statement did not commit the entire Anglican Church of Canada to agreeing to the request made in August by the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference of global Anglican leaders.

That conference had asked for moratoriums on same-sex blessings, the ordination of gay bishops and on conservative bishops making cross-border interventions in other countries. the rest